Town Hall Notes: New Trustee to be named in January
When Town Trustee president Jill Doherty moves up to the Town Board in January, it will fall to the board to appoint her successor.
But the person named to the Trustee position that opened up after Ms. Doherty’s Election Day victory will be at best a temporary replacement.
Although there are two years left on Ms. Doherty’s Trustee term, whoever fills that position will face a special election after less than a year, in November 2012. To win a full four-year term, that person would need to run again in 2013.
The Town Board received the rundown from town attorney Martin Finnegan during Tuesday morning’s work session.
The board will likely select the new Trustee during its reorganization meeting in early January.
GET YOUR NAME ON A PRESERVE
Southold’s land management department would like to name preserves after people who either donate the land or pay 85 percent of the preservation cost. Corporations, nonprofit groups and other agencies could also have properties named after them.
Land preservation coordinator Melissa Spiro and land preservation manager Laura Klahre presented the proposed naming policy to the Town Board Tuesday.
The town’s current practice is to name preserves for people who have devoted their lives to protecting natural resources.
“We’ve had a lot of people request that it be named after them,” said Ms. Spiro. “We’ve been pretty much declining.” She added that her department doesn’t plan to name parks after people if the town pays fair market value for the land.
Signs honoring the benefactors would be no bigger than 11 inches by 17 inches.
Supervisor Scott Russell cautioned that a donation is not a guarantee that the park will be named for the donor. Ms. Klahre said that if someone for whom a park is named after falls into disrepute, their name could be removed.
Board members were generally in favor of the proposal, except for Councilman Chris Talbot, who said he did not want to see Citibank come in and buy up land and then expect to have their name on it.
NIGHT CODE
Southold Town will hold a special code committee meeting next Wednesday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m., to discuss code changes regarding house teardowns.
The committee usually meets midafternoon, but builder Eugene Burger told the board last month that he believes many contractors who need to work during the day would like to weigh in on the proposal.
If adopted, the changes would include new definitions for teardown, alteration and reconstruction, as well as guidelines to ensure that all town departments have copies of the same plans from builders. The session will be held in the Town Hall meeting room.
